About Roger

Hello, this is Roger Hautle - the founder and proprietor of Excel Works Ltd. This page tells you about my background, the sort of spreadsheets I develop and how I work.

I am a Swiss software engineer in my forties living near Oxford in the south of England, 60 miles north-west of London. I started using Excel in 1990 just before I began my engineering degree, and got seriously interested and engaged with it in early 2000. In 2003 I was commercially developing Microsoft Excel spreadsheets for others. Since 2007 I've been running the consultancy Excel Works Ltd through which I offer Microsoft Excel spreadsheet design and advanced VBA programming services, delivering bespoke solutions across a wide range of industries and business tasks. At the core of most solutions sits Excel with its built-in programming language VBA, but I also use other tools and technologies where appropriate.Before moving to the UK and getting into professional spreadsheet development, I developed software code for a Swiss company that delivers emergency-handling systems for the police, fire brigade and ambulance services. I hold a bachelor's degree in software engineering from Zurich University of Applied Sciences, and my initial background is in mechanical engineering.

Normally I work on my own, but if a bigger project requires additional resources I engage skilled and trusted associates. My customers range from sole traders to large organisations. Customers are mainly based in the UK, with a few on the continent and some further overseas (with spreadsheets running in more than 40 countries); customers come from industries as diverse as metal traders, builders, manufacturers, research laboratories, electrical engineers, university professors, investment banks, finance controllers, landlords, business consultants, opinion pollsters, and many more. This diversity results in a wide range of spreadsheet types that greatly vary in size and complexity - something I really enjoy and that has kept me fascinated from the start.

Most spreadsheets I develop are driven by VBA code and a considerable number of them are connected to external data sources such as databases, existing customer systems or the Internet. However, I also develop VBA-free, formula-only spreadsheets if appropriate or required by the customer. The majority of spreadsheets are developed from scratch, but I'm also given existing spreadsheets that need to be fixed, simplified, expanded or integrated with other systems. And then there are formulas people need in their spreadsheets but don't know how to create themselves, so at times I just create and deliver the required components.

I use tools that facilitate building spreadsheets and also maintain a growing code library that contains generic, often-used code templates and snippets; drawing from my library speeds up the development and results in more robust spreadsheets as they contain tried-and-tested code. I have also created a development support framework to automate repetitive and error-prone tasks in the spreadsheet development process. The framework ensures my spreadsheets rest on a solid foundation and are delivered to the end user neatly finished in a consistent manner. Nearly all spreadsheets I build contain the development support framework and customers who wish to maintain their spreadsheets themselves can do so easily with the assistance of the framework.

When writing VBA code I apply engineering rigour to ensure my code is well-designed and clearly structured. I design VBA code and spreadsheet formulas with future maintenance and scalability in mind; this makes it possible to expand spreadsheets at a later stage without running the risk of having to re-develop them. As a standard, all my spreadsheets contain error handling and other safety mechanisms to handle possible exceptions gracefully and to log any issues for later investigation.

I work hard to give customers a great experience with the applications, models or tools they receive; customers can expect neatly finished spreadsheets that reliably do what they are supposed to do, that are easy to understand and use, and that can be maintained with little effort.

If you are looking for an Excel specialist or VBA programmer check out engaging Roger. You can also send me an email, briefly stating what your issue is together with any attachments that help clarify what you want.